Speaker John Bercow sparks fury as he claims Britons will choose to STAY in EU

COMMONS Speaker John Bercow has sparked anger by claiming that Britain will vote to stay in the European Union in a future referendum.

John Bercow has claimed the British people will not vote to leave the EU

Anti-Brussels campaigners last night urged the senior Parliamentary official to keep out of the debate.

Mr Bercow's outburst came in a discussion with students at the Vilnius University during a visit to Lithuania.

He told them: "The idea that we will march through the exit door is extremely unlikely.

"We will remain in; there will be disagreements but we will be part of the EU."

The row follows David Cameron's pledge to hold an in-or-out referendum on Britain's membership of the EU by 2017 if the Tories win the next general election.

Mr Bercow insisted that a majority of voters in the UK will choose to stay in the EU if that referendum is held.

"They may grumble, they may criticize, they may argue for change but will they want to go marching through exit door? I do not believe they will," the Commons Speaker added.

Tim Aker, of the Get Britain Out campaign group, said: “John Bercow is meant to be an impartial Speaker of the Commons, not a mouthpiece for EU propaganda.

"Now he’s exposed his pro-EU views, he is hardly likely to give eurosceptics a fair hearing in parliamentary debates.

"His views are out of touch. Bercow is there to defend Parliament; he should be supporting parliamentary sovereignty, not the EU’s constant power grabs.”

And UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage, who stood against Mr Bercow in his Buckingham constituency at the last election, said: "The three parties at Westminster will all campaign hard to keep Britain in the EU but the polls suggest a rapidly growing number of people don't agree.

It is more sensible to be part of the European Union

Speaker John Bercow

"Unlike the other parties, we want to get the UK out of the EU. The strength of public feeling on this issue is reflected in the growing support we have been getting in opinion polls and local elections in recent months."

A string of recent polls have shown that more voters want to quit the EU than stay in, with Brussels apparently more unpopular in the UK than at any time since the 1980s.

A poll by Harris Interactive for the Financial Times last weekend showed that 50% of voters would choose to quit the EU while 33% would back staying in an immediate poll on the country's EU membership.

As a Tory backbencher before he was elected to the Speakership, Mr Bercow was a firm supporter of Britain's EU membership.

In a Commons debate on European affairs in 2007, he told MPs: "We need to be in there, punching our weight and making a contribution. We need to try to be constructive at all times on every issue."

He added: "When it comes down to it and one has to make a choice, it is more sensible to be part of the European Union than not to be part of it or so to detach oneself from the mainstream as effectively to neuter one’s influence.

"We can all make Eurosceptic speeches—I have done so myself and can do it virtually in my sleep—but I would politely suggest that there is a difference between what one does when one is charged with the responsibilities of government and what one does, or says, when one languishes in the impotence of opposition.

"My personal view is that we should put the issue of membership to bed."

Mr Bercow frequently travels abroad as part of his role is to represent the House of Commons overseas.